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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

DIY End Table From Old Books

Hi everyone! Megan here! The end of July marked my good friend Teresa's 30th birthday. I wanted to make her birthday extra special, so I did two things. One was to make her the birthday cake she requested. I helped with ideas for her party on Pintrest and we came across this cute little cake.

Teresa immediately expressed interest in this cake and asked me if I would bake this for her. Of course I agreed. But, I also told her that her cake probably wouldn't be an exact replica of the aforementioned cake.

Here is Teresa's cake in the process of being frosted. At this point, I was 99% sure it was gonna to be a disaster. The layers didn't come out anywhere near a thick as I wanted them too, but when I started making this cake it was the day before Teresa's party. Way to late to start over.

But it didn't come out too bad. The inside however is magical.

Let's see that again.

Ah, yes! I love it when I'm awesome. Anyway, on to thing two. Teresa's actual gift. Before I reveal that, I want to give you guys some information. Teresa and I met while we were working at Book-A-Million. She was my boss actually. Even though she left Books-A-Million before I did we stayed close friends. Working at Books-A-Million pretty much means your a reader. Teresa has her own library in her house and I thought this end table would be a cute addition to that.

How cute is that? And this project isn't that hard, but time consuming because of the dry time.

Supplies

Books at various sizes. I used 24.

A piece of plywood measured at 17 1/2" by 20"

Elmer's Glue All Max Glue

Mod Podge

A small paint brush

Directions:

1. The first thing you wanna do is mod podge the front and back cover to the first page and last page of the book. Then mod podge all the pages of the book. Don't do each page individually, this will take forever. Just mod podge the outside edges of the pages. This will work just fine. Let the books dry completely.

2. Use your Glue All Max to glue the books all together. Be careful though because Glue All expands as it dries. So make sure when you use this glue that the glue isn't going to expand over the end of the books. This will make a foamy mess. Ask me how I know. E6000 or Liquid Nails will work just fine too. Probably better. You'll want to use a couple of bricks for weight. I used more books and that worked just fine. Also, be careful when you place your weight down because the glue isn't dry and the books can slide. Depending on the glue you use will determine your cure time. Glue All is 4 hours, but I actually let it sit over night.

3. Meanwhile, take your piece of plywood and glue four books to it. You are going to want these four books roughly the same size and thickness or else your top is gonna be uneven. The plywood is gonna be smaller than your four books lined up together. The plywood is just for support for your books. The books are supposed to hang over on all sides of the plywood. Pay attention to how you line your books up. If you want your books to read a certain way (like NOT upside down like mine) you wanna make sure your books are flipped to the way you like them before gluing them down. I noticed my books upside down way after I glued them and I was devastated. Glue All dries white so there was no prying them off and re gluing them. And I didn't have 4 more books that were the same size so I just had to live with it. Make sure you use pressure for these too.

4. Once your glue has dried, glue the plywood to the top of your book tower and place weight on it. Allow glue to dry.

The worse part is the dry time. Also, once the glue had been completely cured I went back over all the books with mod podge just for stability's sake. But that's totally optional.

She loved it. But I had to give her a picture of it on her birthday. It would have been kind of difficult to bring it to Teresa's party on the beach.

Thanks for joining us this week. If you have any questions please comment below. I'm more than willing to help you out.